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Looper's Delight
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I use loops in a number of different situations, in addition to my solo bass/looping performances. In fact, I try (though do not always succeed) in using loops in just about every project I get involved in. Often this might just be in one section of tune in a band's set..but nonetheless, it has helped me to better understand how other musicians percieve looping. One thing that is absolutely neccessay is a good monitoring sytem...especially if you are working with a drummer. Few are the drummers you recoginize their own "imperfections", and often when playing to loops they tend to balme the machine. When using a less than aceptable monitor system, I tend to use my DL4, and "readjust" my loop manually...that is to say, I play what it being looped (to provide continuity) and stop the loop, then re-record it at whatever new tempo/feel we have drifted to. Of course, this may have to be done several times if the drummer/other instruments cannot adjust themselves to the time of the looper. I have recently been using an Adrennalinn, which allows me to send a click drumtrack to a seperate monitor at the drummer ( for this I am using a SWR California Blonde amp). The Adrenalinn in midi syn'd to my JamMan, to his click is at tempo of the loops....this helps. But, nothing beats having your own "looping chops" honed to a fine point. There are a few techniques for tightenig up those pesky loop points and keeping your rhythmic fidelity. I stumbled upon a technique for tightening up the start and end points of loops which has greatly helped the rhythmic quality and “seamless-ness” of my looping and so thought I might share it. I might point out, that usually I consider any “glitch” in the loop to be “incidental” rather than “accidental”, and thus can incorporate it into the loop, even though it might be a garish “error” with an obvious skip to it. The trick there is to make the skip part of the piece…. ….but mostly I am referring to small timing errors which, although the do not seem as obvious as “jumps” still are enough to annoy and frustrate. Probably the biggest point is to play through the end of a loop. That is to say, that as you punch out, play along with the part and into the looped part. This helps lose any noticeable “pops” in the loop points. To aid in the timing of your loop tap ins and outs, you need do develop your rhythmic acuity. One way I have found to be a great help is to hook up a drum machine along with whatever is your primary instrument, in my case bass, to separate channels of a mixer and put the looper into the aux send and return. Be sure to return the looping device to the aux return and not a separate channel. The idea here is “record” the drum machine along with whatever you are looping. If your timing is perfect the drum parts will be flawless, until they start to drift do to lack of sync(yes, btw, don’t sync the looper and drum machine as that will defeat the purpose of the whole technique). That is to say there will be no audible “flam”, glitch or other audio inconsistency. If your timing is just a hair off, something like 10-20ms, you will get a phasing effect from the looped drum part and the original sequence being slightly off. With practice you can lose this phasing effect, and gain a newfound “tightness” to your loops. If your timing is further off, there will be obvious flams, and glitches and other audio ugliness. I use this technique as a regular practice for my looping, and it has helped greatly. It has made it possible for me to really the hear the loops as a sort of audio landscape, and with a higher degree of accuracy in setting the loop points I can proceed with real-time playing or overdubs just as the loop begins to play…again greatly benefiting a “seamless” quality. Of course, with any loop tap, MIDI or otherwise, there is a slight latency, and what you are doing is learning to compensate for this. This is not a performance technique, but rather a practice technique which I have found has greatly improved the rhythmic quality of my loops. Max _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail